they could do nothing effectual till it had been cleared away. This led to the discovery that a tunnel had been made into the mound in a line with the hole in the foundation. It was about four feet in diameter and twenty in length, and in it we got the first clue to the origin of the noises described by Van Hoogen. The men, working under our own eyes, were made to throw out every shovelfull of earth as they went, and as the thickness of the earth above the tunnel varied from five to ten feet, the progress made was slow. They had reached a distance of five paces from the wall, and their work was getting easier, owing to their having cut through the thickest portion of the mound, when the man who was throwing the earth out of the hole called out that he could see a man’s foot. He was at once made to come out, and we jumped into the trench. True enough, there was the body of a man in a half-sitting, half-lying position, one leg bent under him, the other stretched out, and his right hand still grasping the hilt of a sword, the point of which was buried in the earth. From the attitude we concluded that he had died while trying to penetrate through the mound to the outer air, as much probably from suffocation caused by breathing the impure air exhaled from his own lungs, as from exhaustion produced by want of food.
The search having been brought to an end in this direction, another attempt was made to enter the cellar, or cave, or whatever we may choose to call it, beneath the house, but it was unsuccessful, the odour being too powerful to be overcome by the air which had entered since it was first broken into; all that could be done to facilitate admission was the enlargement of the hole and keeping a wood fire burning just inside till the next day, when it was allowed to go out. Even then I do not think we could have entered if Van Hoogen, who was something of a chemist, had not suggested the plan of tying up small lumps of charcoal in a handkerchief, which we fastened across the mouth and nose, and which to a certain extent purified the air we breathed. Seeing the probability that we should require lights to enable us to examine the cellar, I had sent to the port for a couple of ship’s lanterns, and with these we were able to see what I will endeavour to describe in the least repulsive manner of which I am capable.
At the end of the cellar, on our left hand as we entered, was heaped up the earth which had been taken out in making the tunnel. On the ground, before and around us, were lying partially decayed bodies—every one, or nearly every one, with a sword by its side. At the end, on our right hand, we came to some steps cut in the earth, and roughly planked, and at the bottom of these was lying a corpse, not much altered in appearance, which Van Hoogen pronounced to be that of José from the dress, even before we had turned it over to look at the face. Ascending the steps we came to a small platform, where it was not possible for me to stand upright except by putting my head into a narrow shaft or chimney. On this platform lay the remains of two bodies, one that of a woman, and a very cursory examination was sufficient to show that they had been partially burned, portions of the bone, even, being charred. Two sides of this platform were formed by the solid earth; the third, that facing us as we ascended the steps, of an iron plate about four feet square, which Van Hoogen judged to be the back of the grate in the sitting-room. I believe it was at this moment we began to see the explanation of the whole affair; but to continue. Finding there was not sufficient room to wrench it from its position by means of the handspike, we descended the steps, and went into the open air to recover ourselves, and to consider what was the next thing to be done.
Remembering the reputation his uncle had of being very rich, and that nothing to justify this reputation had been discovered hitherto, it was not an unreasonable supposition on Van Hoogen’s part, that this cave might have been contrived by his relative for the purpose of concealing the more valuable of his property. To ascertain this we entered the cave again, but could discover nothing to show that the supposition was well-founded, beyond that afforded by the actual presence of the dead bodies there. The villagers were now called in to remove these, and they were ranged side by side in the open air, to be identified by their relatives, if they had any in the neighbourhood. Still nothing had been found of any value, and we decided that the earth which had been heaped up at the end of the cave should be thrown out. Scarcely half-a-dozen shovelsfull had been cleared away before the body of a human being was exposed, and then a second, and another, and another in succession. In short, the earth had been used by the survivors to cover the bodies of their comrades as they ceased to exist, till a common fate had befallen them all. Nearly the whole of this had been cleared out before the men dug out a box of large size, strongly bound with iron, and with a bunch of keys hanging from the lock. What the value of the contents of this box was I never heard, nor is that material; it is sufficient to say it contained bullion. After this had been secured, and the cellar thoroughly emptied of everything it contained, we returned to the room where Van Hoogen had heard the sounds most plainly, and made a careful examination of the grate to ascertain if there were no springs or anything of the kind by which it could be opened like a door. We could find nothing of this sort, but no sooner did I take hold of the bars, and give a moderately strong pull, than it came away from its position, and swung round into the room, exposing the charred remains behind it of which I have already spoken, and a spring-bolt at the back, which could not have been in its socket.
All that now remains for me to do is to give the explanation suggested by Van Hoogen of what, but for our successful examination, would have been one of the best authenticated instances on record of a house being haunted by supernatural beings. Of course this explanation is mere hypothesis, and the reader may be able, by the exercise of his imagination, to correct it in many points.
He assumed that José was aware of the existence of the cellar, and by intimidation, or from some